Movie Review: He’s All That vs. She’s All That
By Nadia Dupuis
Edited by Ella Byrne-Cabot
The new Netflix original movie, He’s All That is a gender-bended remake of the 1999 film She’s All That, but the movies are not one and the same. For starters, the female lead of He’s All That is a TikTok star, and for many teenagers, that is reason enough not to watch it.
Neither movies scored particularly well on the popular film review website, Rotten Tomatoes. He’s All That gained only a 23% audience score, and She’s All That is only slightly better with 55%. In other words, both scores would be a fail on any high school test. Looking at the money each movie made doesn’t help the story. According to Box Office Mojo, She’s All That brought in around 103 million dollars worldwide at the box office, which may seem like a lot, but in the film industry, it’s not amazing. It’s not currently known how much money He’s All That has made, but it’s been generally popular since it came out. After seeing the reviews and money, anyone would wonder why the movie was remade in the first place.
The plots of He’s All That and She’s All That are based around a bet between friends to see if the main character can make an unpopular outcast into the next prom king/queen. At the end (spoiler alert) the main character ends up falling in love with their newly made-over friend after proving they do like them, and it wasn’t just because of the bet. There are tons of cliches, like “glasses make you ugly,” and “being an artist automatically makes you unpopular,” (both of which aren’t true) that add to the classic teen rom-com feel.
In my opinion, the winner between the two movies is the original, She’s All That. Nothing can beat a 90s teen movie, especially not one with Addison Rae. I would note, however, that Addison Rae’s acting was not as bad as I’d anticipated, but she didn’t have to step very far out of her comfort zone since she plays a teenage social media influencer.
She’s All That had jokes that were actually laughable and was overall more enjoyable. He’s All That is a prime example of a movie that is trying to be relatable for teenagers and is, unfortunately, failing.
“He's All That.” Rotten Tomatoes, www.rottentomatoes.com/m/hes_all_that.
“He's All That.” IMDb, IMDb.com, 27 Aug. 2021, www.imdb.com/title/tt4590256/.
“She's All That.” Rotten Tomatoes, www.rottentomatoes.com/m/shes_all_that.
“She's All That.” Box Office Mojo, www.boxofficemojo.com/title/tt0160862/.
“She's All That.” IMDb, IMDb.com, 29 Jan. 1999, www.imdb.com/title/tt0160862/.